You know, this makes the prison commandant's realization make that much more sense in Lieutenant Kije, when they had to whip an invisible and formless prisoner and march him to Siberia (for context, Lieutenant Kije is a soldier created by a clerical error and used as a scapegoat).

"Oh, an affair of state" he said upon realizing why the prisoner being presented to him, well, wasn't there. Stuff like this must've happened all the time.